


Food Soul Biography: Chili

by Soul_Chicken_Soup



Series: Food Soul OC Biographies [5]
Category: Food Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Abandonment, Becoming a family, Fatherhood, Gen, Post-War, Time of War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2020-07-25 13:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20026891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soul_Chicken_Soup/pseuds/Soul_Chicken_Soup
Summary: Chili, as a delicious mix of beans and meat, is the perfect delight for a family to share. Sometimes, such families come together by a stroke of fate, as did two Food Souls had when their countries were at war with each other.





	1. Parenthood

Spicy continued to sleep peacefully against my back, which was starting to get a little uncomfortable. She wasn’t heavy, which I feared that she was still underweight, but she had been there for the past hour.

The bamboo forest was thick and slowly growing dark as the sun began to set over the mountains, which meant that we would have to come to a stop soon. However, despite my trained combat techniques, I wouldn’t be able to protect Spicy and myself should any adversary be an Amazake or Aizen. Either I had to find our way back to the main road or look for some way to hide the two of us until morning.

I held back a curse when I realized that I had wasted too much time looking for the road when I could barely see my shadow at my feet. Just when I thought that things would just get worse from there, a light caught my eyes. It was a warm orange glow like that of a fire, a sign of someone being this far in the woods. I however worried for Spicy’s sake, gazing over my shoulder at the flower like patch over her left eye.

What if these humans were like those fiends who didn’t deserve to live and throw us to the Fallen Angels?

Smoke began to become visible in the direction of the light. It seemed to only thicken like more was being pumped out by the second. Before I knew it, the smoke was entering my lungs, and I could barely breathe.

“*cough* Daddy…?” My heart stuttered in fear at the grittiness in Spicy’s voice, rudely awakened and breathing in the smoke too. I instantly dropped to my knees to get away from the smoke. Spicy immediately climbed off of my back, and I could see from the corner of my eye how much fear she had on her face.

Was the smoke thickening? It felt like it was forcing itself down my throat like soup, but it was choking me. My mind was a haze between my violent coughs and the burning pain in my chest.

“Daddy!” Spicy’s voice was barely breaking through the smog building up in my mind. My vision started going black and blurry, and I felt my daughter grasp my hand desperately. And then I had just lost all of my strength.

* * *

Gah…! Ow…! “Spicy…!”

A violent cough racked through my body, and I forced myself to sit up from the ground after a fit of them. Only when taking notice of my surroundings, I found that I wasn’t in the bamboo forest anymore. It was a small room, and it smelled like outdoors and tobacco.

“Ow!” Something jabbed at my forehead again. My hand flew up to my head and I grabbed something soft and fluffy. Instantly, the thing was frantically chirping. In my hand was a little duckling with poofy yellow feathers.

“You don’t need to jab at my head with your beak.”

“Oh, you’ve woken up.”

A young monk in blue with long white hair stepped into this small room. Behind him was an older man, but not by a lot, with a pipe in his hand and several more ducklings at his feet. The duckling in my hand hopped off and mingled with the others.

The man in blue leered at the brunette for a moment, like he’s telling him to say something.

“I do apologize for earlier. It wasn’t easy to see you weren’t a threat and I simply attacked you and the child. I have no excuse for causing you two harm.”

“Wh-where is Spicy?”

“Oh, I believe she did tell us her name. Spicy Red. She wore herself out playing with the children. It’s been a slow day so she’s been making company with the others.”

Others?

Ignoring the burning sensation still in my chest, I sprung to my feet and about to shove past them when the brunette caught me by the shoulder.

“Watch your step now. You almost stepped on one of the children.”

A duckling was right under my foot. These little things were the children?

Once my path was cleared, I was in a room filled worth all sorts of objects, peculiar or interesting.

“The mister’s awake!” A child about Spicy’s technical age came up to me, followed by a woman and much taller man than myself.

“The little kid with you was quite the playmate!” the man with wild green hair commented. “She is over there, fell asleep from playing so hard.”

“Spicy.” Relief flooded me when I found the small girl peacefully sleeping in a cot with possibly a hundred ducklings cuddled with her. I ran a hand through her hair and her smile widened a bit in her sleep.

“This girl… Who is she to you?” the man with the pipe asked at my side.

“My daughter.”

“Yes, she did refer to you as her father. But you are a Food Soul yourself.”

“You don’t see me asking how ducklings are your children.”

The man chuckled. “You’ve made your point. You do seem to truly care for this little one. From the looks of her alone, she must’ve had a rough life before you.” His gaze was clearly on her patch to make such a comment.

“She did. Then I just found myself taking care of her like she’s my own. It’s what humans would call a paternal instinct, I believe it is.”

“I haven’t yet caught your name though. Spicy would only call you ‘Daddy’ and nothing else.”

“White. Creamy White. We are Chili, an inseparable pair.”


	2. Under the Same Sky

This was not a good height! Not a good height for me to be at!!

Have to get to the top! At least there’s solid ground! Don’t fall off! It’s a long way down!

“Hurry up, Spicy!” Caretaker barked. Caretaker was captain of the small troop of medics, constantly traversing the cliffs and dunes of our homeland during the war. Everything with us was carried on our backs. So Caretaker was always grumpy.

“Seriously, why don’t you just ditch the kid?” one of the grown ups in the group complained. “Her healing powers are weak and her spicy scent irritates our eyes. She’s as useless as a real child.”

My eyes watered, overhearing that as I finally reached the top.

I was doing my best in the field! I was doing my best to heal the wounded soldiers! I wasn’t useless!

“Why don’t we try to kidnap that one healer the enemy owns? That stronger, more capable Chili?” A Chili other than me? I didn’t know such a person.

“That ‘Creamy White Chili’ Food Soul? We don’t even know if they actually have a Food Soul like that,” Caretaker rebutted. “It’s not worth our lives even if it does exist but is more fit for combat than medical work.”

“Caretaker!” I called, rushing to his side. “I want to see if there’s a Creamy White Chili!”

“And of course the brat wants to put her nose where it doesn’t belong,” another medic muttered. “Also, why does she even call you ‘Caretaker’ and not ‘Master Attendant’ like every other Food Soul?”

Caretaker didn’t explain, and I didn’t either because I thought it was straightforward. He’s taking care of me, and that’s what a caretaker was.

“Anyways, the next camp is in another few miles. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for those Gloriville soldiers so we can stay clear of them.”

Gloriville was the enemy country, trying to invade Palata. Not as conservative as us and waste a lot of their resources. But if they really had a Chili in their medics, I wanted to meet him.

Maybe we really could convince him to join us! Then I could have someone to do more than just walk through the desert with! I wonder what he’ll be like!

* * *

The stars were more beautiful out here over the desert than anywhere in the cities of Gloriville. There’s so many shapes that you could make and some were easier to see with the brighter stars. There’s the constellation for the Great Fish, and far to its left was the Master Lobster, and even farther was-

“Cream, time to eat your rations before someone else takes it,” the captain of the medical squad called. Tearing my eyes away from the sky, I returned to the team’s camp where the group was passing the beans and cabbage around the fire. The simple meal was lightly salted for flavor and none of the medics complained as long as it filled them enough.

My Master Attendant had died only a short time ago in the line of duty as a soldier. After witnessing my healing powers, I was ushered to the medics division, where they were put to use after a long time.

“Man, are we lucky to have Creamy in our troop, saved my leg after that landmine!” one of them laughed, already buzzed by the alcohol taken with us for medical purposes. Sigh, humans would never be able to control their urges to drink.

“How about you stop taking our medical alcohol for your own pleasure,” I spoke my mind. “So you could’ve seen the landmine and I wouldn’t have needed to haphazardly repair your leg that was close to falling off.” That shut the man up quickly, and the other six people in the group laughed.

“That’s harsh especially for you, Cream! You have more bite than we thought!” the captain commented.

“He sounded like a family man to be honest,” one of the younger medics said. “Got me thinking of my brother’s family, he dotes on his kids so much and always making them eat their words when they do something wrong. Shame that Food Souls can’t have children.”

“Who says they can’t?” another, older member asked. “I mean, if they look like a man, they’re a man, and vice versa for a girl. Has anyone even seen if it can happen?”

“If so, now isn’t the time to find out,” the captain stated. “We are still at war, you know. Children out here is not an option. They won’t make it.”

Children. Master Attendant had a single child back home before he was drafted in the war. Poor child would never know their father now. And the thought of me with a kid… I didn’t know how I would handle even one.

“Speaking of kids, apparently the enemy is stooping as low as drafting them in.” My attention snapped towards the medic that spoke. What? A child fighting in a war? Palata was truly a disgusting country.

“What do you mean?”

“Recon had seen a group of soldiers with a little, red haired girl no older than my daughter. She wasn’t dressed like a soldier, but she was following them everywhere.”

“A red haired girl?” 

“I hate to suggest this,” the captain said with a pondering look into her beans and cabbage, “but maybe that child is a Food Soul. Several Food Souls take the appearance of children.”

“But it still makes her a child,” I pointed out. “She shouldn’t be involved in something like a war.”

“If her Attendant is a soldier, then she doesn’t really have a choice, Cream. Almost like you didn’t have a choice when you and your Attendant came along.”

That’s right. I got involved simply because my Master Attendant was pulled in, and I had been unable to pull out when they discovered that I could heal people. But still, that didn’t mean that a child should be here.

The emergency alarm went off, echoing through the desert. The only time the alarm would go blaring like it did was when danger was approaching. Everyone quickly began to pack up and I helped put out the fire.

“Fallen Angels coming fast from the east! Hurry up and move out!”


	3. Discovery

Aaaaaaah! My eye!

It burn! It hurt so much!

This pain was unbearable! Caretaker! Where’s Caretaker?! He would help me!

“Caretaker!”

We were ambushed. Not by Gloriville soldiers, but the Fallen Angels terrorizing Palata. They stormed over us, and the team…

Agh! The pain got stronger! My tears were stinging my face!

Why? Why?! Why did they leave me to save themselves?! I couldn’t fight, they knew that! Why?!

Feathered feet and talons grabbed at me viciously and I could only scream in terror. Please, I didn’t want to die! I just wanted to stay by Caretaker’s side forever!

Suddenly, the grips on all sides were taken off, and a mild, warm smell wafted over my senses. It had the aroma of chicken, garlic and beans with a hint of spicy pepper. The pain I felt was slowly ebbed away by the mouthwatering scent and I felt myself being hoisted up in a pair of arms. Was it… Caretaker? Did he come back for me?

This was definitely the physique of a human man holding me, but the same aroma was covering him. This wasn’t Caretaker!

I wasn’t able to thrash out of the man’s hold, still feeling the pain in my eye that shot down through my body. The arms then held me closer to the person with the creamy smell, and I could feel that they were moving with hurried steps.

* * *

The pain had receded enough for me to open my undamaged eye after I woke up. By the angle of the sun on the horizon, half a day had passed since the ambush. Over my hurt eye was expertly wrapped bandages, which caught me at a loss.

“If she were a normal child, she would’ve been dead.” The voice of a lady brought my attention to a small group of people with similar gear to the medics team. But the colors were different from Palata soldiers. They’re from Gloriville.

“This kid really is a Food Soul, huh,” another medic commented, sounding a little unconvinced though.

“Even so, those disgusting Palata troops didn’t get far after leaving her to the oversized crows. Despicable,” someone else pointed out with a sickened tone. “Karma came back to mutilate them, literally. More scum scraped off the face of Tierra, I say.”

“Hey, her Attendant was among the casualties from today, back off.” The defending tone came from a man who wasn’t dressed the same as the Gloriville soldiers, and he wasn’t dressed like a medic either.

“Oh. You’re awake. I’m so relieved that you regained some of your strength.” The man knelt down beside me on the medical blanket, and his assuring smile had a warmth I never thought I would ever see from Caretaker.

He was definitely different from the rest of Gloriville. Had a different aura than a normal human. And that smell from before I passed out was all over him. It made me curious. Then, I remembered about the team talking about another Food Soul on the enemy’s side.

“Are you… White?” I asked hesitantly. The man leaned back in surprise, probably thinking how I could know who he was.

“Yes, I’m Creamy White Chili. I’m a medic.”

“I’m Spicy. Spicy Red Chili. Also a medic, though not that strong of a healer.”

“I didn’t know that there was a Chili other than myself.”

“Neither did I.” I tried to sit up from the blanket, but he placed a warm hand to me and had me lay back down.

“You shouldn’t put too much energy in moving. It won’t be good for your eye. Speaking of, it’s time I replace the bandages.” White’s hands were so gentle, unwrapping the blood soaked bandages with the greatest care. I hissed as the dry, desert air hit my wound and I had to keep myself from touching it. Fresh, sanitized gauze was placed over my eye and then secured with clean bandages wrapped by the same gentle hands.

“Thank you. Why are you nice to me? Aren’t we enemies?”

“Do you want us to be?”

“No. I actually wanted to meet you after hearing the rumors. I wanted you to come to our side.” That came out more pitiful than how I heard it in my head. “So I wouldn’t be alone.” He gave a small frown, and following was one of his hands combing through my hair.

“Your Attendant didn’t even bat an eye at sacrificing you. If anything, it’s further reason to keep you with us. In Gloriville, we don’t do that to each other. Fight me on this if you want, Red, but from what I’ve seen, you’d be happier on our side.”

“Like a daddy and his little girl!” I heard one of the medics laughed, probably looking at the two of us.

“They do look cute together,” another spoke up. But those voices faded out quickly. Because all I could focus on was that one word.

Daddy… Caretaker, he was sort of like a dad… but not like… not like White here.

It fit White- Daddy better.


	4. New Family

The number of Fallen Angels had increased over the next several weeks of the war. I refused to let Spicy leave my side as her injury continued to heal. I didn’t know what this feeling to keep this young girl close was, but I just knew that she wouldn’t survive out there on her own.

The crew had joked here and there that I practically adopted her as my own child. We Food Souls couldn’t have children. Under natural means, I suppose. But adopting another Food Soul? It sounded foreign to me, more so than the cultures of Palata.

Spicy was currently tending to the sunburn the captain had gotten from the sun, making sure the aloe vera cream was properly applied. This heat was starting to get unbearable, and it was really taking its toll on the team. Soon, our supplies would be spent just on us.

“Thank you for doing that for me, Spicy,” the captain said to the small Food Soul. The redhead gave her a bright smile that could make even the sun melt.

Spicy Red Chili was too innocent of a child to get caught up in a war.

So innocent. It got even to the point of-

“White, you need to drink water too!”

Gah, this kid was too innocent and cute!

* * *

Days later, a messenger arrived. With the growing amount of Fallen Angels, the war was only going to leave both Gloriville and Palata exposed. So now, after years of warfare between the nations, there were setting up a truce.

“But that would mean that those still here in Palata would be left behind!” our captain opposed. “We have a child in our group! You expect to dump us here after years of service?!”

“We can only save so many with the Garuda growing ever larger!” the scared messenger reasoned. “And I don’t recall hearing you having a kid among you! We couldn’t have predicted that!”

“So what now?!” “There’s going to be scouts coming to your location, picking up survivors! But…”

“Only a few can go. Is that what you’re going to say?”

The man whimpered a confirmation, worrying all of the crew, including myself.

“Fine. We’ll send Creamy and Red back to Gloriville.”

What?

“But Captain! Why them?!” one of them argued. “Some of us have our families at home, waiting for us!”

“But Creamy has a child of his own in the middle of all this. Priority should be Red, otherwise they will just send her to an institute or get hurt again.”

She’s not my-

“They’re Food Souls! It wouldn’t matter!”

“That doesn’t change the fact the two had no reason to stay involved. Their Attendants are dead, but they were forced to stay in the war effort. This is repaying them for keeping them here. The rest of us were volunteers. So they will be the ones to go.”

No one argued with the captain. Spicy was holding my hand, having listened to everything.

“I’m going to Gloriville?” she asked me. I gave her a nod.

“Yes. You’ll be seeing home from my eyes.”

* * *

The armored carriage arrived the next day. Another vehicle would take the rest to the closest settlement. The team watched the two of us enter the vehicle, the captain smiling reassuringly.

Spicy sat in my lap, laying her head against me shoulder.

“Um, White?” she said quietly.

“Yes? Nervous to see Gloriville for the first time?”

“Yeah, but… I want to ask something.”

“Ask away.” I could answer her questions on Gloriville best I could.

“Can I call you ‘Daddy’ from here on?” Okay, wasn’t expecting that. But she was by no means asking in a joking manner. For her age, she was very straightforward.

But I felt a bubbly warmth when she asked me. The medic team would tease and joke about it, but looking down at this sweet child with her bandaged face, I couldn’t deny anything.

It just… fit so perfectly.

I pulled her closer, putting my arms around her.

“If it’s you, you can call me whatever you want.”

“Yay!” Her bright smile returned, and I could actually feel her getting warmer. “You’re now Daddy! My Daddy!”

I couldn’t help but smile back.


	5. Chili

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally finished! I kept hitting a lot of writer's block while writing this last chapter!

The child from Palata, Spicy Red Chili, took a short amount of time to understand the culture of Gloriville, her adoptive dad’s home country. Creamy White Chili showed her many sights to be seen. Spicy followed him everywhere, and Creamy never took his eyes off of his daughter.

Families who had seen them would think they were always together from the day they were summoned, and more naive people would believe that Spicy is Creamy’s biological daughter. Overtime, the pair had become known to be simply called “Chili” without any clarification of who was who.

Creamy watched as Spicy ran around the Golden Tree Ranch, chasing after a small group of piglets. The bandages on her face were no longer needed, but it was just to cover the horrible scar on her eye. In solution, the older Food Soul brought her to the ranch so he could focus on a present for his daughter. The soft red materials that he had chosen were carefully sewn together into a flower on a black leather ribbon. Now that he was done with the design, he needed to see if it would fit.

“Spicy,” he called. Creamy didn’t need to call for her twice, for Spicy came to a stop with a hop to break her momentum. She was skipping up to the white haired Food Soul, who was sitting under one of the signature golden leaf trees.

“I have something for you. You need to hold still though.”

“Okay, Daddy!” With a smile, the man carefully unwrapped the bandages from Spicy’s face, which made her curious of what he could be giving her. The smaller wounds had left no trace, but she could run her fingers over where her eye once was and feel the deep scar that took its place.

Something was slipped onto Spicy’s head, tucking back the puffier strands of her red hair. A material that was softer and less irritating on the scar than the bandages was fitted right over her eye and a string of sorts went from her head to behind her ear.

“A perfect fit! It looks adorable on you!” A pocket mirror was pulled out of Creamy’s leg pouch and held it in front of the girl. The flower shaped eye patch covered her scar completely and was attached to the sparkly, red headband in her hair with accessories that matched her top. “Do you like it, Spicy?”

“I love it! It’s so pretty!” She immediately jumped the man, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank you so much, Daddy!”

Creamy chuckled at her enthusiasm, holding her in his arms.

* * *

“That’s my girl. She knows what she wants.”

Peking Duck gave a humored chuckle, watching Spicy pouting at Creamy with a duckling in her hands.

“Why can’t I can’t one of these fluffy cuties with us?”

“Because they’re not yours, they’re Mr. Duck’s kids. And he already stated that he had no intention of giving any away.”

“But they’re so cute!”

“How would you feel then if someone just wanted to take you from your father, little one?” the monocled man asked. Spicy took a pause, and in seconds she was sniffling and holding back tears.

“I don’t want to be away from Daddy.”

“And I’m sure your father would be sad to see you be taken away, right Creamy?”

“Nothing would make feel more sad than never seeing my daughter again.”

“I-I’m sorry, Daddy… Mr. Duck…”

“Ow! These splinters!” The three turned to where Pancake had set a beaten broom to lean against the wall, and the younger man trying to pick out a splint of wood from his finger.

“Give me one second.” Without pause, Creamy went over to the brunette with a pair of tweezers he drew from his leg pouch, and he took hold of the boy’s wrist to hold him still. In a few seconds, Creamy was able to pull out the tiny splinter with the tweezers.

“Thank you, Creamy. It’s like you have experience with this sort of thing.”

“Well, I was a medic a long time ago. Not to mention getting splinters out of Spicy’s fingers and knees meant a lot of practice.”

The redhead laughed before handing the duckling to Peking Duck.

“Thank you for playing with my children, Spicy. They all enjoyed their time with you.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Duck!” she replied cheerfully. Spicy went over to Creamy hugged him around the waist. “Can we come back and visit Mr. Duck and the others someday, Daddy?”

“As long as it’s okay with them.”

“Spicy is so much fun, Mr. Chili!” Hawthorne Ball exclaimed, coming up to Spicy. The redhead gave a hug to the blue eyed Food Soul with a giggle. “We love having her here! Just ask Mr. Bamboo and Pancake!”

“Well from the looks of it, you two are welcome back any time,” Peking Duck concluded.

“Thank you so much. We look forward to our next visit.”

Without being told, Spicy pulled away from Hawthorne Ball and jumped into the arms of her father.

“Bye, everyone!” the small girl said, waving to the Bamboo Mist Pawn Shop residents as Creamy headed down the main road with his daughter safe and by his side.


End file.
